Vermont’s dirty little secret
October 1st, 2007
Opinion, Vermont, global warming
In doing some “research” on my Vermontitis post yesterday, I found this interesting little compilation on per capita gasoline consumption on a state by state basis. While a “California” information product, it uses data from the EIA (Energy Information Administration): we’ll assume this is fairly reliable stuff. Besides, we like to follow California’s lead in these things (05CV302, for example).
Vermont ranks 11th in per capita gasoline consumption, using 81.5 gallons more each year per person than the national average; on a percentage basis that 17.5% more than the U.S. average of 464 gallons.
Which, for our state population of 608,000, we consume - over the national average - an additional 49.5 million gallons of gasoline - for the privilege of living in Vermonia.
What makes this exercise in arithmetic interesting to me though is to compare it to the Montpelier rhetoric regarding the “Entergy” tax and how we would use that to “save” on heating oil use and its associated carbon emissions. But enough already. Consider this, the average “Vermont family of 4 (living… say in Ripton) has to spend 81.5 (extra gallons) x 4 (per capita) x $3 (price per extra gallon) = $978 per year to live in our quaint little state; for which we have higher heating bills, on top of being the most highly taxed state!
By the way, our extra little consumption means that there’s profits leaving the state… about $150 million each year! Can you imagine such a thing?
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